published September 17, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
apparmor: fix deadlock in complain-mode change_hat
The use of change_hat when in complain mode can cause a deadlock
when the hat doesn't exist and a new learning profile is created
for the missing profile. This is because change_hat() has taken
the lock to search the hat list and creating the new learning
profile needs to take the lock to add it to the list.
From the bug report:
Originally found in 7.0.0 in LTS ubuntu 26.04 with pam_apparmor + su
in complain mode set to change hats. Then verified in newest
available vanilla kernel I've compiled to see if still present:
7.2-rc7 vanilla -> affected
checked also some other kernels:
6.18.44 vanilla -> affected
6.12.95 with debian patches -> unaffected
On systems without bug (for example 6.12.95 debian) it just prints:
aa_change_hat rc=0
On systems with bug, the executable always hangs, prints nothing and
becomes unkillable. (And once stuck this way, it will cause any
further hat changes to also cause the changing process to get stuck)
Then in syslog you can find hint about cause:
kernel: INFO: task hat:3409 blocked for more than 483 seconds.
kernel: Not tainted 7.2.0-rc7 #1
kernel: "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message.
kernel: task:hat state:D stack:0 pid:3409 tgid:3409 ppid:2605 task_flags:0x400000 flags:0x00080800
kernel: Call Trace:
kernel: <TASK>
kernel: __schedule+0x48f/0xfe0
kernel: schedule+0x27/0xa0
kernel: schedule_preempt_disabled+0x15/0x30
kernel: __mutex_lock.constprop.0+0x569/0xa10
kernel: aa_new_learning_profile+0x15f/0x210
kernel: build_change_hat+0x19f/0x3b0
kernel: change_hat.isra.0+0x5dd/0xd60
kernel: aa_change_hat+0x2f3/0x710
kernel: aa_setprocattr_changehat+0x121/0x1f0
kernel: do_setattr+0x28c/0x340
kernel: apparmor_setselfattr+0x20/0x50
kernel: security_setselfattr+0xf6/0x110
kernel: __x64_sys_lsm_set_self_attr+0x53/0x90
kernel: do_syscall_64+0xdd/0x5e0
kernel: ? __mod_memcg_lruvec_state+0xfd/0x260
kernel: ? lruvec_stat_mod_folio+0x8d/0xd0
kernel: ? __folio_mod_stat+0x2d/0x90
kernel: ? map_anon_folio_pte_nopf+0xd1/0x1f0
kernel: ? do_anonymous_page+0x184/0xa10
kernel: ? __handle_mm_fault+0x805/0x870
kernel: ? count_memcg_events+0xef/0x230
kernel: ? handle_mm_fault+0x1f0/0x2f0
kernel: ? do_user_addr_fault+0x2bb/0x7b0
kernel: ? do_syscall_64+0x94/0x5e0
kernel: ? exc_page_fault+0x75/0x160
kernel: entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e
kernel: RIP: 0033:0x7f815e134c8d
kernel: RSP: 002b:00007fff6df94ea8 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 00000000000001cc
kernel: RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000556d8c81d040 RCX: 00007f815e134c8d
kernel: RDX: 0000000000000046 RSI: 0000556d8c81d040 RDI: 0000000000000064
kernel: RBP: 00007fff6df94ef0 R08: 00007f815e212ac8 R09: 000000000000000c
kernel: R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000556d8c81d010
kernel: R13: 0000000000000026 R14: 0000000000000046 R15: 0000000000000064
kernel: </TASK>
kernel: INFO: task hat:3409 is blocked on a mutex likely owned by task hat:3409.
To fix the issue, lift the locking out of the core of
aa_new_learning_profile(), introduce a wrapper function that takes the
lock where needed, and have build_change_hat() call the core function
that no longer takes the lock.
In addition fix 4 other issues introduced by commit
32e92764d6f8d ("apparmor: grab ns lock and refresh when looking up changehat child profiles")
- aa_get_profile_rcu() was replaced-by: aa_get_profile without the
accompanying rcu_dereference_protected()
- an extra aa_get_label(label) was introduced at the start of
change_hat() without an accompanying aa_put_label() causing a
reference count leak.
- a reference count leak was introduced in the label_is_stale(label)
case, where the newest profile would be leaked instead of the
label passed to the function.
- a potential UAF when the lookup walks up the tree with new_ns != ns
the new label refere
---truncated---